If you grew up in Columbus, there’s a good chance you knew or at least heard from Abe Weinrib.

The Poland native spent six years in several Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and recounted some of the most horrible stories imaginable: dragging bodies into ditches for burial, losing his family, and nearly succumbing to typhus after being freed.

As terrible as those memories were, Weinrib never hesitated to share them. He spent the last several decades of his life talking to local students about the Holocaust.

Weinrib died last week at the age of 102. For more on his incredible life story, WOSU’s Steve Brown spoke with Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann, a long-time friend who gave the eulogy at Weinrib’s funeral.

Monday's Holocaust Memorial unveiling at the Ohio Statehouse marks the end of a three year saga from conception to creation. The story includes some controversy and the resignation of a top Statehouse official.

Monday’s Holocaust Memorial unveiling at the Ohio Statehouse marks the end of a three year saga from conception to creation. The story includes some controversy and the resignation of a top Statehouse official.

Three years agoÂ Gov. John Kasich insisted that Ohio needed some type of memorial to pay tribute to the victims and liberators.

“We need to have remembrance in this Statehouse,” Kasich saidÂ at the annual Holocaust Commemoration. â€œThat members of our Legislature and members of the public as they pass through this great rotunda will be able to understand not just the history of the times when people wouldnâ€™t stand but the fact that itâ€™s today that we must stand against evil.â€

Those comments set the memorial project in motion. The Capitol Square board which runs the Statehouse created a panel to select a memorial site and artist. However, the boardâ€™s chair, former Republican Senate President Richard Finan, strongly opposed the project.

Finan didnâ€™t believe the Statehouse was the appropriate site for a Holocaust memorial and claimed the governorâ€™s involvement intruded the intended independence of the Capitol Square board.

â€œWhat the governor should have done was come to the board to apply for a memorial and then the memorial would go through a process within the board and be approved or not be approved. He didnâ€™t do that, â€ Finan said last year.

Tensions escalated after Finan asked a Statehouse crew to construct a mock-up of the memorial. Â An 18-foot structure made up of pipes, tarps, and rope stood on the south lawn.

Finan eventually resigned soon after casting the only â€œnoâ€ vote on the Holocaust Memorial plans.

Other groups suggested that the memorial, which includes two tablets displaying the Star of David in the middle, could threaten First Amendment rights.

Joe Sommer is an Ohio board member of the Freedom from Religion Foundation who testified against the structure.

â€œWeâ€™re concerned that the prominent display of the Star of Davidâ€”which is a sacred symbol of the Jewish religionâ€”constitutes an endorsement of a specific and therefore would violate the First Amendment, â€ Sommer said.

Joyce Garver Keller, executive director of Ohio Jewish Communities says the star does not promote any certain religion and stresses the importance of the memorial standing on public grounds.

â€œYes itâ€™s appropriate for government because the Holocaust did not begin with smokestacks and ovens it began in the halls of government where legislation was passed that allowed the expulsion of Jews and others that the Nazis didnâ€™t support.â€

During the unveiling ceremony, Governor Kasich said he hopes the memorial reminds visitors to continue the fight against prejudice and recognize the evil that still exists.

]]>http://wosu.org/2012/news/2014/06/02/statehouse-holocaust-memorial-unveiling-caps-three-year-journey/feed/0holocaust,John Kasich,ohio statehouseMonday's Holocaust Memorial unveiling at the Ohio Statehouse marks the end of a three year saga from conception to creation. The story includes some controversy and the resignation of a top Statehouse official.Monday's Holocaust Memorial unveiling at the Ohio Statehouse marks the end of a three year saga from conception to creation. The story includes some controversy and the resignation of a top Statehouse official.WOSU Newsno2:36Statehouse Holocaust Memorial Takes Shapehttp://wosu.org/2012/news/2014/05/08/statehouse-holocaust-memorial-takes-shape/
http://wosu.org/2012/news/2014/05/08/statehouse-holocaust-memorial-takes-shape/#commentsThu, 08 May 2014 14:14:30 +0000Karen Kaslerhttp://wosu.org/2012/news/?p=70427

The first new memorial in decades on the Statehouse grounds is just a few weeks away from being completed.

The stone is there, and soon 18-foot tall bronze panels that will be assembled to form a cutout of a split Star of David on those metal ladders will arrive.

â€œThat work was done off site and that will be brought in and placed on the memorial site, and the stonework, which was quarried outside of Cleveland â€“ and so everything should be in place for the dedication,” Garver says.

Garver Keller says this technically will be the second holocaust memorial at a statehouse â€“ thereâ€™s one on the grounds of the capital in Ames, Iowa.

But she says this memorial is unique because it honors not just those who lost their lives but those who saved lives â€“ as noted by the phrase from the Jewish text the Talmud thatâ€™s carved into the stone, â€œIf you save one life, it is as if you saved the world.â€

â€œSeeing that I think will give people pause. Theyâ€™ll think about it. It may bring discussion together in terms of a work of art. Art should provoke conversation and thought, and I think that this piece will do that in a very positive way.”

And Garver Keller says she thinks it will also draw attention and study to the Statehouseâ€™s other memorials and statues. Bad weather this winter had delayed construction of the memorial.

But the $2.3 million project, paid for with private funds and constructed with $300,000 worth of taxpayer funded work on the site, is set to be dedicated in whatâ€™s planned to be a large and elaborate ceremony on June 2.

Last year, at a holocaust memorial gathering at the Ohio Statehouse, Gov. John Kasich raised the idea of creating a memorial inside the building.

“Iâ€™d call on the Jewish community as well as our brothers in faith to develop some sort of a memorial that members of our legislature and members of the public, as they pass through this great rotunda, will be able to understand, not just the history of a time when people wouldnâ€™t stand but the fact that itâ€™s today that was must stand against evil,” Kasich said.

After that comment was made, former Senate President Richard Finan said he had a brief visit with a representative from the Governorâ€™s office who offered no specific suggestions about a holocaust memorial.

Finan, who heads the board that operates the Statehouse and its grounds, says his group, by law, must approve memorials and any changes on Capitol Square. He says he was blindsided to learn last week that the legislature was set to approve, as part of another bill, a holocaust memorial on the Statehouse grounds

“We were totally in the dark and it was a total circumvention of the rules that were established in 1992,” Finan said.

Finan emphasizes heâ€™s not against a memorial for the holocaust in principle. But he said he is against the way the Governor and legislature cut the statehouse board out of the process of determining if, when and where such a memorial would go.

“One of the problems here was this happened quickly and Iâ€™m not sure this wasnâ€™t with malice and forethought. I think that if this had gone in to the bill when it started out, we would have had a chance to talk to members of the house and senate and do something about it,” Finan said.

Finan says during the 15 minutes before the vote on the legislation, he was able to get the Capitol Square board’s involvement written into the measure. But he says just having the board involved is not enough. Finan says at least 10 different groups have been clamoring for memorials for different causes on the Statehouse grounds.

“This now opens the door to proliferation of statues on the Statehouse grounds or anything else,” Finan said. “All one has to do now is go to the Governor and say ‘I want a statue of Donald Duck on the Statehouse grounds’ and if he gets convinced of it, boom, it goes and we have nothing to say about it.”

And Finan said thatâ€™s why the legislature, back in 1992, put the board in charge of these decisions in the first place. He says too many people were making too many changes – building walls, bathrooms and other structures that harmed the integrity of the Statehouse and its grounds. Finan said the oversight board was established to make decisions that were well researched and fair.

A spokesman for Governor Kasich is defending his actions. Rob Nichols says specifics about the memorial are not yet available but it will go forward.

“There is much to be determined at this point,” Nichols said. “Not everything is set in stone. But we think itâ€™s important not only to survivors, their liberators but those who perished. We are committed to this project.”

Finan says he still hopes advice from his board will be sought and heard as the memorial moves forward so that it can, at the very least, be structurally sound. Thereâ€™s a holocaust remembrance ceremony at the Statehouse in a couple of weeks and Kasich will likely want to announce more detailed plans for the memorial at that time.

]]>http://wosu.org/2012/news/2012/04/04/holocaust-memorial-raises-policy-issues-within-statehouse-walls/feed/1holocaust,John Kasich,legislature,memorial,statehouseLast year, at a holocaust memorial gathering at the Ohio Statehouse, Gov. John Kasich raised the idea of creating a memorial inside the building.Last year, at a holocaust memorial gathering at the Ohio Statehouse, Gov. John Kasich raised the idea of creating a memorial inside the building.WOSU Newsno3:51